Sports

Cycling figures conflicted over Lance Armstrong's 'mea culpa'

ByTHE DENVER POST

Posted:
01/18/2013 03:48:39 PM MST

Calling it everything from "a Greek tragedy" to "a very contrite Lance Armstrong," area cycling figures were left emotionally exhausted from Armstrong's 90-minute "mea culpa" to Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night.

In the first minutes of the program on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Armstrong admitted to using EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, cortisone and human growth hormone and that he doped during all his seven straight Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005.

"That was a different Lance Armstrong than we're all used to seeing," said Steve Johnson, president and chief executive of Colorado Springs-based USA Cycling. "It seemed like a certainly contrite but honest response to tough questions."

Armstrong not only admitted to doping but the need to reach out to people who accused him of cheating and who he tried to destroy.

"He merely copped to everything," said Alan Fine, owner of Turin Bicycles and who has been in the cycling business for more than 40 years. "It was a pretty gutsy appearance. He took responsibility for his own actions. He put it in context again: 'I didn't create the culture. I was part of it. I made a bad choice.'

"I don't know what else he could do but that -- that or bury himself in a hole somewhere."

Many Colorado cycling officials felt conflicted. Armstrong brought cycling from the back pages to the front pages, and while difficult to quantify, he helped pump interest in recreational cycling.

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"It was kind of tough to watch, yet it was what I wanted to hear in many ways," said Hunter Jupiter, promotions manager for the five Bicycle Village stores in the metro area. "He was such a big part of cycling and brought so many people to the sport and was such an ambassador to the sport for so many years, it's a shame to see the sport get a black eye."

However, all agreed they wanted a true confession -- and they received one. Asked what surprised him most, Jupiter said, "The first 10 words he said. I'm glad it was out in the open, for better or for worse. It's what needed to be done."

Armstrong fooled millions. His fans. His sponsors. He also fooled the media.

"I'm very disappointed, obviously," said John Wilcockson of Boulder, the editor-at-large of Peloton magazine and who has covered 44 Tours de France. "I'm very upset because at the time, we didn't believe (he doped) and most of the people who watched him win all those Tours didn't think he was doping."

Like many journalists, Wilcockson could feel betrayed.

"It's hard to say betrayed," he said. "We could've made our own judgments. (London-based journalist) David Walsh took a different path and questioned everything. He said in his first book that he didn't have any proof but circumstantial, but that you can make up your own mind about the facts and the quotes from other people.

"David was right."

Where does this leaves Armstrong? No one knows. He still must face the World Anti-Doping Agency to get his lifetime ban reduced to compete in sanctioned triathlons. But the bigger concern for many is where it leaves the sport.

"This isn't just an American cycling issue," Johnson said. "Lance Armstrong ... said at the time he was riding that it was impossible to win without doping. There's plenty of evidence in the past of other riders involved in similar activities.

"Certainly we're at the point where we can get our arms around this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Locally, that's a huge factor. They had to get past the Armstrong factor.

Said Shawn Hunter, chief executive of Colorado's USA Pro Challenge: "(Thursday night) and the last six months were necessary, and hopefully it will allow all of us in the sport to turn a page, especially all the stockholders who are investing money and time in growing this worldwide."

Part II of the interview airs Friday night. Armstrong's struggles may just be starting.